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Crocodilian
The Crocodilians (Crocodylia) are an order of reptiles belonging to the Archosauria subclass. Alongside some of the other archosaurs (some of which become dinosaurs and pterosaurs of Jurassic and Cretaceous time periods), the first crocodilians appeared in the early to middle Triassic period, around 248-5 MYA. Such reptiles already possessed long jaws, powerful neck muscles, short legs and a lengthy tail, and were adapted to life both on land and in fresh water, able to live for several months on fat stored during the times of plenty. [[Chasmatosaur|'Proterosuchus']] was one of such archosaurs. A still-long-legged and potential crocodilian ancestor, this reptile, just a bit bigger than the modern Komodo dragon lizard was featured in the last episode of Walking with Monsters series, where it hunted a herd of lystrosaurs as well as small Euparkerias, who near the end of that episode shown evolving into such dinosaurs as Allosaurus, signifying the eventual dominance of dinosaurs over the more basal reptiles. Postosuchus '''was another such archosaur reptile, featured in the first episode of '''Walking with Dinosaurs, "New Blood", which picked up where Walking with Monsters had stopped at. Postosuchus was a well-defended animal, and had a body plan more similar to some of the dinosaurs or other archosaur reptiles other than crocodilians: it was flat-footed but had long legs tucked underneath its body, which meant that it could run quickly and even stand up on both legs, though not for very long, unlike the dinosaurs. In the end of that WWD episode, a Postosuchus was eventually overpowered and killed by a pack of Coelophysis dinosaurs, which it had harassed earlier. Put otherwise, with the extinction of Postosuchus and other such reptiles cleared the path for the more advanced dinosaurs, such as Coelophysis and Plateosaurus. Despite the extinction of Postosuchus and others, however, by the Jurassic period, the crocodilians were already well-established as aquatic predators, and even taken to life at seas. Metriorhynchus, featured in the third episode of Sea Monsters, was one such crocodilian, belonging to the metriorhynchid branch of the family. Reaching 2.5-3 meters in length, this was a middle-sized predator, hunting fish, cephalopod mollusks, pterosaurs, and other denizens of the Jurassic seas, and was hunted by the giant pliosaurs, such as Liopleurodon, which swallowed them whole. By the time of the Cretaceous period, however, the sea crocodilians' ecological niche was taken over by various mosasaurs intstead. In fresh water bodies, however, the crocodilians flourished. Since 206 MYA, most of them belonged to the neosuchia branch of the family. The giant Sarcosuchus, featured in the first episode of Chased by Dinosaurs, was one such neosuchian - a killer of dinosaurs, this reptile easily reached up to 12 meters in length, making it almost equal in strength to the giant dinosaur Giganotosaurus, also featured in that episode. However, Sarcosuchus died out 93 MYA, a long time before the K/T mass extinction, during the middle Cretaceous, possibly due to the appearance of the eusuchians, the first modern crocodiles, alligators and caimans. Deinosuchus, a giant prehistoric alligator, featured both in the last episode of Walking with Dinosaurs and the last episode of Prehistoric Park, was such an eusuchian, equal in size and power to the aforementioned Sarcosuchus. (Kaprosuchus, featured in the episode 4x02 of Primeval, was another extinct Cretaceous crocodilian, albeit one that appeared to live on land, rather than in the water.) The K/T extinction at the end of the Mesozoic affected the crocodilians as badly as it did the other reptiles: most of the first Cainozoic crocodilians were small; the one featured in the first episode of Walking with Beasts swam away, when it was approached by an Ambulocetus, one of the ancestors of the modern whales. There were other, terrestrial species of crocodilians, however, such as Pristichampsus, who for a while even challenged the mammals supremacy - until they died out in the Late Eocene (The one featured in the ep 3x01 of Primeval came through a time anomaly). But the fully aquatic crocodilians, and now one of them, the 7 meter long saltwater crocodile, is one of the most dangerous and biggest reptiles of the modern world, implying that if the crocodilians get a chance, they will become giants again. Category:Walking with Monsters Animals Category:Walking with Dinosaurs Animals Category:Sea Monsters Animals Category:Walking with Beasts Animals Category:Prehistoric Park Animals Category:Primeval animals Category:Reptiles